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What are your favourite fragrances, and why?
I fucking love fragrances, so I'm also interested to know which ones you lot are fans of
I fucking love fragrances, so I'm also interested to know which ones you lot are fans of
I think you and I have talked about this before, but the two I use for daily wear are Hermes Eau de Merveilles Bleue and Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca. I do prefer the blue one (I love aquatics and this one reminds me of, like, a winter Seattle ferry ride: cold water, breeze, bare rock) and find myself wearing it more but unfortunately I think I smell better in greens and the Herba Fresca has these really interesting spicy and minty notes on me. I'm not an expert though!
How I got into fragrance is kind of stupid. A lesbian oriented gacha I play, Reverse 1999, has canonical fragrance notes for all the characters, and I thought, "I should have a fragrance, too! Which of these women do I want to smell like?" Well, it turns out, they released perfumes based on the characters as merch. The one based on the main character, Vertin, was an objectively shallow and uninteresting androgynous aquatic fragrance but I bought it and liked it and it was a start.
Edit: I should mention that the Eau de Merveilles is for some reason a complete compliment magnet. I almost literally can't go out wearing it without someone saying, "wow, you smell really good, what perfume are you wearing?"
Indeed, and our conversation is precisely what inspired me to post this question here :)
Love the backstory though!
As someone who lives in Seattle and loves water scents and also the smell of basalt, I have to check this out immediately! (The Hermes I mean)
Oo I love herba fresca! It makes me feel like I've been weeding an herb garden
Anything Petrichor. Don't currently have a fave supplier though.
You should absolutely check out Hexenacht, they are an indie perfumer and have several with petrichor in the notes
Got a favorite for a recommendation?
I haven't smelled any of those ones unfortunately, but I have Amanita which is like a dank soil, and I think some other one, desert rain, that has that rain scent. I really like a lot of their stuff and they are very reasonably priced, the 10ml or 8ml or whatever rollers, I haven't gone through even one. (granted I have a dozen+)
What are your personal top two, for sample order purposes?
I love desert rain and papier d'armenie, those are my favorites from the brand
I've been by their online storefront, but, like all the american perfumers I've found alluring, they don't ship outside of the U.S. It is part of why I'm currently between suppliers - beaides my mothertongue, I'm only really profecient in English, and both are (maybe surprisingly) inadequate when looking for small perfumers in the EU.
Going to a renfair later this month - hopefully someone brings something that sings of spring rain and too long held tears finally falling. That would be cathartic and nice.
Petrichor is probably my favorite smell in nature. So intrigued by a personal scent based on that! I know you’re between suppliers, but any particular recs of ones you’ve liked in the past?
Geosmin! Barrister and Mann makes a shaving soap that does capture petrichor quite well, but I haven’t found it in a perfume that doesn’t lose it in the dry down.
I don't think I've ever properly smelled petrichor. The smell after a rain to me is always... wet dust.
You might be able to smell it if you are in a place with good vegetation during a ligjt drizzle after a long dry spell; petrichor isn't as much the smell of rain, as it is the smell of plant signaling oils and microflora byproducts that the rain whirls into the air. It's what the name "petrichor" comes from - loosely translated "Blood of the Earth".
This is a bit off topic, but apart from the beautiful smell and the poetic symbolism, the reason I really love this smell is that it usualky accompanies my favourite weather around my neck of the woods: light sporadic rain in the early evening from a sky about as cloudy as it is clear. The way the light shines in the raindrops, like strands of glass, the ground wet and glistening from the low sunlight, the numerous rainbows hiding in patches around the horizon. Truly magical - and the smell of petrichor always just fits!
I adore Encre Noir. It is an absolutely insane value. If you like it, I'd suggest some other vetivers: vetiver bourbon by perfume empire, sultan vetiver by nishane, and kind of any from Guerlain, but I like the aqua allegria forte nerolia vetiver. I bought that recently and I've been wearing it more than almost anything else (especially when it's so damn hot outside)
Philosykos by Diptyque is still my all-time favorite, I love this creamy green fig scent. Fig's not a common fragrance note, and other fig scents I've tried just don't come close.
Sayu by Ahres is a new favorite, found this Japanese brand a few years ago while traveling. Now I pick up a a bottle every time I'm in Tokyo or Osaka. It's a very feminine, sophisticated, elegantly blended floral-soapy scent.
I'm not a cologne person, but my daughter bought me this $5 bottle of cologne from TJMaxx for fathers day and it turned out I really liked it. The bottle describes its contents as bergamot, sage, and tonka bean. One of the reasons I don't typically like cologne is that, if the scent doesn't disappear after a few hours, it seems to sour or change into something I find revolting. The bergamot, sage, and tonka bean cologne smelled good even 12+ hours after spraying it.
The problem I'm stuck with now is that I'm a cheapskate and I can't find the same cologne anywhere for less than $45. (Laugh, laugh at me, you spendthrifts! I know I'm cheap.) I've been on the lookout for either another TJMaxx sale or an alternative brand that has the same characteristics as the bottle I've just finished.
Oh, this is a question I am excited to talk about!
Honorable mentions: Timbre and AEOOJ from Chris Rusak, 1888 from Casamorati, Minneapolis 5.3 from Berceuse, Shalimar from Guerlain.
I used to wear Mississippi Medicine from DS&Durga, but then I discovered WO/02 Woods Street from Zara, which was a 1:1 clone. They're basically incense, black pepper, vetiver, leather, and cedar. Mississippi Medicine has since been discontinued, which is insane.
Lush carries Vegan Leather Jacket, which is a solid perfume or whatever. Its basically a brighter version of Will & Baumer's Pontifical blend -- that classic church incense that they wave around.
More recently I've introduced Vera Wang For Men and Prada Amber Pour Homme. I typically stick to more oriental / incense / smoke, but these are nice and still carry some spice.
Oh man, I hate Mississippi Medicine! That perfume made me realize I don’t like smokey fragrances.
Haha did you smell the original or the one later after they doubled the price? You’d likely hate both, but the first was better where the second had a weird chemical touch like those logs you buy at the supermarket.
I think I still have a partial sample of the original. I do remember trying it again at a shop and disliking it even more, so perhaps that is related!
shame you aren't into smoke and stuff -- its a nice little niche, but there are some absolutely terrible ones.
I was making cologne for a time. I was extracting lapsang souchong and doing it with a cedarwood texas, some incense notes, etc etc --- you would have haaaaaaated it. It was pretty much all smoke. It was nice but also smelled like a house fire.
There is one smokey fragrance I don’t hate, I believe it is Allegretto 7.2. But that is the same perfumer behind Bogue, who does some pretty great work.
vetiver and mint is a good combo! I'll see if I can track it down. vetiver and most things, though... the best.
I should get back into it. For a time I was designing scents for retail spaces but that sort of fizzled out. Not that its required, but I don't have any training in this stuff and I'm not even sure I'm particularly... gifted or talented with it. :)
It does seem like a fun endeavor to learn, I was considering trying my hand at it a while back! I have an oakmoss tincture steeping right now actually, from some I harvested this spring.
Have you smelled T-rex by Zoologist? It's a notorious fragrance in the live it or hate it, to me it smells like that awesome putting out a candle smell, I love it but haven't bought a full bottle just yet since it's so potentially off-putting. My friend fucking hates it, he absolutely hates candles and it reminds him of it so strongly. So I'm concerned if I wear it(and it is pretty strong) people might be like WTF were you just in a house fire?
how strong is that civet base note? between that and musk, I always think someone shit themselves when I pick that up. haha
Hmm, hard to say, I like Civet, but it's less than in something like Kouros that's pretty controversial, and more than Chypre Siam where you wouldn't notice. Definitely not musk forward as a scent to my nose, compared to say Madagascar Man or Musc Ravageur, where the musk is obvious with the vanilla and other notes.
If you love smoke aromas, the La Curie, Incendo I mentioned is hard to beat. No chemical or sulfurous notes, just a very naturalistic pine campfire scent with green and tea notes. From one of the reviews, it sounds like this scent might be right up your alley:
you are speaking my love language. :) that sounds perfect.
If you have the interest, the Institute for Art and Olfaction has online and in person courses. Saskia Wilson-Brown, the founder, taught a very reasonably priced remote Perfume 101 class in partnership with Atlas Obscura a couple of years ago, and her knowledge plus the starter kit made it a very good value.
I've been tempted more than once to start making my own, based on local wine aromas that made me to wear them all day. Like a Chenin Blanc with aromas of honeydew melon, linden flowers, clover, lime zest, Golden Delicious apple, green tea, and mineral brine.
hm thats neat. also, you should definitely make your own. I just learned the basics and got extracting and mixing. I got a 99.5% alcohol from my government and was extracting teas and stuff. I ended up extracting teas and other things, cutting it, and drinking it all, which wasn't very productive at the time.
Too many to name, but to narrow down a few....Musc ravager as far as if I had to only have one, but it's a particular vibe. Big vanilla big musk. Sultan Vetiver for fresh, hotter weather. Probably Eau Sauvage(NOT Sauvage) for one that's inoffensive, could wear in an office setting. I got into fragrance maybe 15+ years ago, usual designer ones that I still love: le male, Kouros, egoiste. My brother and friend also love fragrances so over the years we've progressed through weird ones, niche fragrances, etc. getting a lot of samples and collectively going through them is a real pleasure, and I'd highly recommend doing that with a group of friends even if they aren't into perfume. Sometimes you'll find introducing people to fragrances will get them hooked or you'll find things you smell as abhorrent they'll love. Among our group, Amouage King Blue smells literally like poop. It smells like poop, I've changed a lot of diapers and King Blue smells like it but some people swear it's the best one Amouage makes. What are ones you go to?
Eau Sauvage is a classic.
Only two colognes I've ever used long-term: Chrome by Azzaro and Reaction by Kenneth Cole. That said, I stopped using Chrome long time ago. Like early college. Something about it changed for me. I don't know if the formulation changed, but it wasn't as good. Or maybe my tastes (smells?) changed, in the sense that I didn't feel like it fit me anymore. It felt "too soft.' I'm not mister masculine by any means, but it just didn't fit how I viewed myself any longer.
Since then just stuck with Reaction. Which I think strikes a better balance between light & refreshing while not being super "soft." Though it's also not overpowering and doesn't scream "MAN." Which is perfect. In fact, I think the fragrance's problem is that it doesn't last very long at all. Anyway, I ran out last year finally and still haven't bought a new bottle.
I remember almost buying a DNKY men's fragrance once. Don't remember which one. Maybe I should look (smell?) into that again.
I'm a sucker for woody/spicy Oriental fragrances.
Hands-down favorite, Guerlain, Tonka Impériale. I'm still working off a fifteen year old bottle that my spouse gifted me, and we can both wear it comfortably. It's too complex to be a strictly gourmand aroma - tobacco and herbal notes keep it interesting and vibrant. Unfortunately, it's been discontinued.
Other faves:
La Curie, Incendo is a nostalgic campfire in the woods that's surprisingly wearable after it dries down.
Madini, Olive Flowers is an inexpensive but lovely replica of the very old school Oriental fragrance type, "more Shalimar than Shalimar".
L'Artisan Parfumeur, Aedes de Venustas - nothing else quite like it.
Olive flowers sounds interesting! I have an old (1930s to 1940s) bottle of Shalimar, so it could be a fun one to compare!
My daily driver is usually Bronze Wood and Leather by Jo Malone. It’s a little bit too masc for my tastes for the first half hour or so after applying (I was so mad at myself after testing it, driving home smelling like sad dad aftershave), but it fades into a lovely, sweet muskiness that I really enjoy for the rest of the day (by the time I got home I was convinced and ordered a bottle).
My “date night”/“dress to impress” scent is Tom Ford - Santal Blush. To me this is the perfect scent, but it’s pricey and the scent doesn’t really last a full day, so I mostly use it for special occasions. I would bathe in this stuff if I could.
I also have a couple of cheap-but-delightful solid perfumes that I really enjoy from Broken Top: Santal Noir and Tobacco Teak. I stumbled upon the former in a random gift shop on vacation and loved it, it’s a slightly warmer take on the Santal style. If I want a break from the JML I always reach for this. I’d probably replace it as my daily driver if it didn’t take so long to apply :)
Orange peel. Particularly mandarin varieties. Honestly, just about any citrus peel.
The smell of most fresh cut wood, but pine is the best. Even finished antique wood furnature has a pretty amazing smell.
Basil. Fresh bread.
…
Oh, you all were talking about commercial fragrances. I don’t particularly care for the vast majority of them; I find them to be kind of… distracting? For the most part I want things to smell like what they are, or the idealized versions of them.
Although I will admit that I love scented candles. The best scents are waaaaay too expensive so I basically just get whatever discount ones I can find that don’t have offensive scents, a disturbingly rare find.
You might enjoy ordering some samples from Pineward? Some of their stuff is quite challenging, like Murkwood (@tomf I just remembered Murkwood has a lapsang souchong component, so I guess that’s two smokey fragrances I don’t hate), but many others are just well executed pine fragrances. I don’t really like pine fragrances much, I really wanted to like Velvetine, but it’s pine.
Grove is in the Heart by Samar should be absolutely up your alley. It smells like you just peeled a bag of clementines. One of my favorites but my wife doesn't really like it so I don't wear it that often haha.
Tocca Stella is probably my favorite. I'm terrible at descriptions but it's blood orange with a bit of floral but not the screechy notes that make me dislike most florals. Just pleasant. I'm also fond of the black tea body spray from bath & body works
I enjoy holiday candles, it's amazing how smells connect to/bring up memories. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest of the US and I miss some of the smells here. My kids think the candles just smell nice when I light up a balsam candle, but it always smells like winter and Christmas to me.
Mostly a bunch of indies for me. I've spent too much at American Perfumer over the years. I generally gravitate towards woody scents.
Mown - Hendley Perfumes reminds me of tatami and brings back memories of travelling in Japan. My goto comfort scent.
Koala - Zoologist Perfumes Zoologist scents are always so interesting and complex and thematic. This is my personal favourite Zoologist, I just love the eucalyptus.
Jaipur Chai - Ineke Perfumes does exactly what it says on the tin. Smells like a comforting cup of chai.
Sombra Negra - Yosh to my unrefined nose this just smells like the perfect balance of sandalwood and oud.
Bloodline - Hans Hendley smokey and woody and autumnal. Strong but not overwhelming.
Santal Auster - Maher Olfactive sandalwood with an almost incense-y vibe. Not for hot weather.
Bonus summer choices - AdP Colonia Assoluta, for when I want to smell like a fancy italian sort. Guerlain Vetiver because it's such a sharp, green scent for me.
Some (many?) years ago, Calvin Klein discontinued Obsessed For Men, which was my go-to for a number of years. It was relatively affordable and broadly available from random chemists etc, and since it was discontinued, the price on secondary market has climbed well outside of what I’d be willing to pay. I managed to find a few online retailers which had dribbles of old stock for a few years at MSRP or close to, but eventually they ran out too.
Last year I finally decided to look for something else. After trying literally dozens of options (I found a website that would sell 1mL testers in kits of 6/12 at a time, grouped with words like “floral” or “aqua” or sometimes by brand) where I found a surprisingly large number of scents which triggered my hayfever, but also lots of scents which I either disliked or found that they faded way too quickly, I finally found one that I liked. Never realised I would be so picky when it comes to fragrance, but apparently I’m difficult to please in that way.
My current choice after all these trials is The Orchid Man, from P Frapin & Cie. I really like it, but it’s definitely more pricey than I would like, and I feel like it fades before the end of the day whereas Obsessed seemed to last all day. I do like what it turns into as the initial scent fades after a few hours, but I wish it would stick around for longer overall.
I have a Classic Match of Nautica Competition that I've always liked and has gotten me many compliments. Juniper berries and bergamot, then nutmeg and rosemary. It's very funny to me because I already had a penchant for gin, Earl Grey, and egg nog, and I just never put it all together until recently.
Bit different of a response but I have to know if anyone has recognized certain mens fragrances smell a bit like celery? I smell it pretty often.
Also I love smells of all kinds.
Aqua Di Gio
Bleu de Chanel
Baccarat Rouge
Tommy by Tommy Hillfiger
CK One
Lost Cherry by Tom Ford
Are all the fragrances I use.
I've been trying a bunch of different perfumes and eau de toilettes to find what I like.
Blocki - For Walks : this one is actually my favorite so far. I bought their Discovery Set because so many sounded really good on their website, but I fell in love with this one. I never expected the combination of scents in it. "Earthy, fresh, violet." I wear this most often.
Smells Like Books - Feyre : I really loved the scent descriptions in ACOTAR, so I sought out perfumes inspired by them. I absolutely love the scent of lilacs and combined with the fruitiness of pear, it's so good. This one is more pear-forward, which is fine. It turns out I love fruity scents too. Unfortunately it's an eau de toilette, so it doesn't last as long on me as regular perfumes do.
Along the same lines as Smells Like Books' Feyre, I also enjoy Wonderwick - Feyre : this one is much more lilac-forward, so I like it when I want a stronger floral fragrance rather than fruit-forward.
Apparently I have a type because I also picked up the Bridgerton - Dearest Graceful Hydrangea from Ulta. I can't seem to access the page for it on Ulta's site currently, but quite like the floral, woody, fruitiness of this one. The scent always reminds me of something when I wear it, but I can't remember right now 😅
Non-perfume fragrances: huge fan of fall and winter scents, particularly anything with spices. Quince had a candle this past winter called Spiced Noel, with the description of fresh-cut pine, mulling spices, and sparkling citrus. I loved it so much that I ended up buying 3 total. Just having it out to smell and not lit smells so good; when lit, it has excellent throw. It fills the room and travels up the stairs, my husband loves it too. I think it's a dupe for NEST's Holiday candle, so I'd like to try that one eventually. In the meantime, I'll enjoy the candles I have (regardless of the the time of year!)